ZIPERNOWSKY, Károly

After completing the training for pharmacy assistant in the Kecskemét, Z. studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Budapest from 1874/75 on. As a student he would already teach at the Society of Hungarian Engineers and publish an article in the minutes of the Vienna Academy of Sciences. During his university years, he worked as a draftsman in the office of the Austrian State Railway Company. In 1878 Andreas →Mechwart, the Ganz factory's managing director entrusted him with organizing and managing their electricity departmet. There Z. implemented incandescent lighting system for the local foundry, but also for the National Theater of Budapest. He also designed the arc light generator. Then he focused on the successful development of AC generators. He and Miksa → Déri invented self-induction alternating current generator in 1883. Together with → Déri and Otto Titusz → Bláthy a system for the distribution of current parallel switching, which operates on the principle of inducing alternating current, was patented in 1885. That same year, Z.→ Deri and →Bláthy also obtained a patent for a ring-shaped transformer with closed iron core, which became the basis of alternative current (AC) power distribution networks. Such a network was installed at the National General Exhibition in Budapest, opened on May 1st 1885. The energy which came from an AC synchronous generator with a 1350 V and which was distributed with generators lit 1076 lamps. Abraham → Ganz factory gained an important place on the world market due to Z.'s inventions. Z. continued to invent current transformation with a single rotor, a lamp holder with bayonet valve, a one-track tram for the narrow streets, which was created only as a model (today in the Transport Museum in Budapest), and along with → Déri a patented multiphase current-sharing scheme. In his work "Eigene und zusammen mit anderen patentierte Erfindungen" (Patented inventions of my own and together with others) in 1900 he published a description of forty patents. Initially people felt some resistance towards Z. because he was not an academician but practitioner, but in 1888 he as head of one of the leading electrical companies in Europe received an invitation for full professor position at the newly founded Department of Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Budapest. Until his retirement in 1924 he was primarily concentrated on teaching, developing the Institute and equipping the laboratory. Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him a corresponding member in 1893. Between 1905 and 1938 he was President of Hungarian Society of Electrical Engineering and later an Honorary President. In memory of Z. the society annually grants Z.'s medal.